Thoughts of an activist lawyer

Prior restraint, Tacloban and Corona

I am forced to rush the writing of this column because I have to proceed to the Pasay Regional Trial Court. Apparently, Jo Imbong and son filed an application for a temporary restraining order to stop the holding of a conference on Reproductive Health currently being attended by 1,500 delegates from all over the world. The hearing this afternoon is on the prayer for the TRO.

I do not know what Jo Imbong alleged in her petition in support of her prayer for a TRO. Media reports say that she seeks to restrain the management of the Philippine International Convention Center, Health Secretary Enrique Ona and the other organizers of the conference since the affair has three panels on safe abortion and access to medical abortion. Media have reported that Imbong and son argued that these panels violate the Revised Penal Code because it encourages the commission of a crime.

I am almost sure that the Revised Penal Code does not punish any incitement to commit abortion, even if Jo imbong’s assertions are correct, but which I very much doubt. This being the case, the mere inducement or incitement is not a crime in this jurisdiction. Accordingly, what the conference will discuss should be treated by the state as protected speech. Accordingly, the prayer for the remedy of injunction will have the effect of prior restraint on the exercise of free speech. Let’s hope that the RTC of Pasay, my home city, will be true to its mandate to uphold the suprmemacy of civil rights over religious dogmatism.

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I was overwhelmed by the readership of and comments on my column on graft in Tacloban. I’d like to thank the almost unanimous expression of support for my view that public international law, the dictates of conscience and the law of humanity does not discriminate on the basis of partisan political affiliations in the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the typhoon ravaged province of Leyte. By way of follow-up, I have since discovered that Dinky “If We Hold On Together” Soliman has been distributing 25 kilos of rice per week for families in Leyte. This is good but I hope not in aid of her election bid in 2016.

Apparently, this large amount of rice was sourced from the recently seized smuggled rice from Vietnam. I suppose that distributing the fruits of the crime of smuggling to those in need is the most appropriate means of disposing of fruits of a crime. I just hope that smuggling could be curbed once and for all because in addition to depriving our farmers fair access to the market, it also deprives rice traders and allied industries a share of the market. Let’s also hope that the vultures responsible for the anomalous bunkhouses will not profit from the distribution of smuggled rice.

While we’re at it, the anomalous bunkhouses defended by Secretary Rogelio Singson as not being “overpriced” have all been blown away anew by nature. I’d like to hear the good Secretary and Malacañang say again that these bunk houses were not anomalous. Mind you, they were not blown away by a major typhoon. It was more like mere monsoon rains. Let’s refer to these golden bunkhouses as the Yolanda-gate scandal to remind us of the vultures who will make profit from the miseries of others.

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Let me end by saying kind words to Malacañang.

Senator Bong Revilla was off-tangent when he claimed impropriety when the President talked to him to vote to oust Corona from the Chief Justice post. While I am of the view that PNoy certainly has a lot to answer to us, his boss, talking to the senators to rid us of a lying Chief Justice is not one of them. PNoy had nothing to do with the fact that Corona lied through his teeth o when he withheld information about his millions of dollars in dollar deposits in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.

Moreover PNoy had nothing to do with the bad acting that Corona exhibited in the Senate which sealed his fate as the first Chief Justice removed through impeachment. Corona only had himself to blame for his ouster. Let’s not pass the buck to Pnoy—not on this issue, at least.